In Other News - Board Game Atlas, Zombicide, Catan 3D, WitchStone, Pandemic novels, and The Battle of Five Armies
There’s a very healthy ecosystem of board game reviewers who help us mere mortals wade through the plethora of games competing for our attention. Board Game Atlas thought it would be more useful to have all those reviews in one place and stepped in with the launch of their new review system featuring the industry’s top critics with over 3000 review snippets at launch. The Dice Tower is one of 30 top critics to be included in the initial slate who go side-by-side with community reviews all measured against a 100-point scale.
"In the past two months we have rolled out new systems for publishers, retailers and now critics. This is only the beginning, and we are very excited to continue to improve the board game experience for the consumer and everyone else involved." - CEO Trent Ellingsen
CMON have announced a new zombie themed version of their popular Zombicide board game, Army of the Dead: A Zombicide Game. Zack Snyder’s (known for directing movies such as 300, Watchmen, and Dawn of the Dead) latest movie, Army of the Dead, is currently on Netflix and centers around a group of mercenaries looking to extract a boat-load of money out of zombie infested Las Vegas before its wiped from the face of the earth by military bombing. The latest iteration of this Zombicide game is standalone and adds new twists to the successful formula which makes it perfect for new players as well as fans of the series. CMON had prior success adapting a horror movie when they brought Night of the Living Dead to the Zombicide game system.
If you’ve ever wanted to spice up your CATAN board then the CATAN 3D Edition should be right up your alley. It features terrain tiles that were hand sculpted by the game designer, Klaus Teuber, and are all hand painted. Pre-orders in the CATAN Store are set to ship in August and will set you back $300.
R&R Games have announced WitchStone, a board game where 2-4 players are wizards cast away to the seemingly deserted, and ominously named, Dragon Island. Players compete for treasure as they discover exotic terrains, build special structures, and manage their magical energy to tame dragons. The game ends once the entire island is explored and whoever has earned the most treasure at that point wins. Its best suited to players aged 12+ and plays in roughly 60 minutes.
Ares Games are releasing a revised version of the The Battle of Five Armies which is inspired by the famous battle from The Hobbit novel in which Bilbo Baggins witnesses the fierce struggle. It includes an exclusive variant scenario for the War of the Ring Second Edition board game, The Fate of Erebor, which will also be made available to owners of the older version of the game. The revised edition includes improvements to the rules and cards which first appeared in the Collectors’ Edition.
Asmodee’s fiction imprint, Aconyte, have announced details of a range of graphic novels based on the Pandemic board game. The first title will be Pandemic: Patient Zero releasing in September 2021. This novel serves as the first episode of a series and follows new recruit, Bodhi Patel, who is in South America searching for clues regarding the mutated virus’ origins. A local warlord runs these lands and doesn’t make it easy for our hero.
"To say this series has been long in the planning would be an understatement. Patient Zero was completely written and about to be announced in early Spring 2020 when… well, we all know what happened next. Even with a message as positive as the one enshrined in the game and the novels, the timing wasn’t right. Now updated, it truthfully and respectfully captures the courage and sacrifice of experts in the field, and shows what can be achieved when teamwork, cooperation, and empowerment are put to the test." - Aconyte’s publisher Marc Gascoigne
